The Profound Impact of My Global Partners in Care Internship in South Africa

Categories: Community Engagement.

by Ethan Harned

For the last two and a half years, I have worked as an intern for Global Partners in Care (GPIC). Last year during my university break, I spent two months working with the Palliative Care Association of Uganda (PCAU). Building off of that experience and my work as an office intern with GPIC, I spent my break this year completing a field internship in South Africa.

With Joan Marston, my internship supervisor at APCA Conference

For the bulk of my time, I worked with Joan Marston and the team at Sunflower Children’s Hospice in Bloemfontein, South Africa. We collaborated on a project exploring how palliative care services were addressing the social determinants of health in adolescents living with HIV in South Africa. I will forever be grateful for this experience to learn more about the work of children’s palliative care as it has influenced my future trajectory.
Before arriving in Bloemfontein, I spent two weeks in Cape Town. During my first few days, I had the fortunate opportunity to support the African Palliative Care Association (APCA) at their 20th Anniversary Kickoff at the 2024 IHPBA Congress. Given my support of GPIC communications over the last couple of years, I supported APCA during their celebrations by coordinating the public response seen on social media. One of my highlights from this weekend was working so closely with the APCA team. I have had the pleasure of collaborating with them on several projects in the past, but this was the first time I had the opportunity to work with them in-person and get to know the team on a personal level.

Following my experience working with APCA, I spent the following week learning about children’s palliative care work in the Western Cape. Dr. Michelle Meiring and her team at Paedspal Pediatric Palliative Care graciously hosted me for several days while I was in Cape Town. I was appreciative of the opportunity to observe their team as they collaborated on specialty care in both the out-patient setting and at Red Cross Children’s Hospital. Dr. Meiring and the Paedspal team have an incredible vision for the future of children’s palliative care on the continent, and it was remarkable to see this vision take shape in the community.

While in the Western Cape, I was fortunate to spend a day with the team at Helderberg Hospice, a GPIC partner located in Somerset West. During my visit, I learned about the historic and dynamic partnership between Helderberg Hospice and Hospice of the Western Reserve in Cleveland, OH. Both partners have such deep admiration for the work of the other, and I admired the ways in which each organization incorporated the work of the other into their own work. One of my biggest takeaways from this experience was learning about how a partnership can evolve over time with the needs of both organizations in a way that is mutually impactful.

My two weeks in Cape Town flew by, but no visit to Cape Town would be complete without spending a bit of time with GPIC Advisory Council Member, Andre Wagner. I am beyond grateful to Andre for hospitality and friendship during my visit. It was an incredible way to end my time in Cape Town!

With the team at Helderberg Hospice in Somerset West

I then traveled to Bloemfontein to begin my next six weeks of work with Sunflower Children’s Hospice. During my time with Sunflower, I spent my time completing many different interviews for my project. Everyday looked quite different, but in many ways, this is very representative of children’s palliative care. Somedays, I visited the townships to meet with grandmothers of adolescents living with HIV, and other days, I met with officials at the Free State Department of Health.

From the perspective of the project, there were many takeaways. There is a major gap in the care for adolescents living with life-limiting illnesses such as HIV. I was able to explore how this gap was present at the highest levels of policy making and then see the ripple effect this had all the way down to the community level.

Community visit in Bloemfontein

While in Bloemfontein, I had the privilege of spending time with Olga Molahloe, the manager of Sunflower Children’s Hospice’s Community Program. This program works with hundreds of families in Bloemfontein and the surrounding areas. Olga and her team of 11 community health workers were vital in helping me to navigate learning about the effects the health system was having on adolescents in the community. I was in awe at the ways the Sunflower Community Team went above and beyond to meet the needs of each and every child on the program. Because of the Sunflower Community Program, thousands of children have been given the chance to live longer, happier, and healthier lives. My experience working with this team taught me so much about how impactful a palliative care community program can be, especially when a population faces vast social inequality.

I also had the honor of meeting many in the “Sunflower Club,” a large network of volunteers in Bloemfontein and around the world that are passionate supporters of the work of Sunflower. It brought me so much joy to learn about the reasons why each person has gotten involved with Sunflower and how they use their unique talents to support the growth of the organization. I was fortunate enough to lead a workshop with a few members of the “Sunflower Club” on social media and brainstorm with them the many ways in which they can simultaneously engage those in their community and around the world on the work they are doing.

I will carry with me so many lessons from my experience in South Africa. As a professional, I grew immensely and learned how to rise to the challenge in a new and evolving landscape. I also learned how powerful qualitative research can be in advocating for palliative care patients around the world. On a more personal level, my experience working in South Africa had a profound impact on me and my future career path. While I have always been on the path to pursuing a career in medicine, my internship experience has given me a deep desire to continue my involvement in the field of children’s palliative care in whatever way that may take shape. As I look to my graduation in May, I am eager to see how I can integrate children’s palliative care into my long-term work. Beyond the impact this experience has had on my professional trajectory, the relationships I built with those in South Africa have formed life-long friendships. I offer my deepest gratitude to Joan, the Sunflower team, and all I met in South Africa for allowing me to share in your lives during my GPIC internship!

This article was originally published on the Global Partners in Care website and has been shared with kind permission. 

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